22nd FEB 08 – 24th FEB 08 (Mattachini’s Birthday)

Friday 22nd February Got home from work and I was still feeling sick, but amped for getting better at the same time. Work was good though, I got lots of front-end problems solved, so should be moving forward very well. I spent most of the night doing updates for the Geelong Cattery Website, as I just got all the FTP details so I could be let loose on it. I’ll admit, it’s not my best work – but it’s functional. Websites tend to loose their charm after a year or so, with the new technologies always coming out. If I was paid to do it, I’d probably overhaul the whole thing. Still amped for some reason, I couldn’t really get to sleep. I stayed up until 4am, most of the time towards the end looking through Google Earth and finding the places that mattered to me. I planned to sleep in past midday at least, as I was still trying to get better. Saturday 23rd February Sleeping in until midday was not to be. Not even close. I woke at about 9.30am to the following noises in this order:

• People yelling
• Continuous whistling (to the dog?)
• Mum vacuuming outside my door
• Sylvia outside my door
• Mum coming into my room to ask about digital picture frames

My fault, I should have gone to bed earlier. Or gone on ‘Deal or No Deal’ so I could buy my own house (or begin to afford to). So for the day I just chilled, played a bit of Pac-Man 20th Anniversary on Playstation. Looked at this and that on the internet. Had a slight nap, to feel good for the night, Malph’s Birthday Party. While getting ready to go out, I hear this in the next room: “Anne, can you come here – he’s got blood pissing out everywhere…” Sub-Zero Unmasked I walked out into the dining room to find Jake with a ice-pack on his head. He took it off to show me, and revealed and huge (and deep) cut across his head and that continued along the same line above his mouth. He then told me the story that he would have to tell 100 times more, to each person that asked. He had ran into the shed and grabbed a jerry can to re-fuel the motorbike his girlfriend’s cousin had bought over for a bit of a ride. The can sits just inside the shed, so he did a quick reach around the corner, but as he blindly turned back around he ran into the display train signal that sits just outside the shed. So he basically hit his face into a 5mm thick piece of steel. This knocked him unconscious, both from the shock and force of the hit, I presume. Yeah. Nasty story, with a nasty scar. He seems to be making a habit of getting knocked out lately (last time was in the mosh pit for Rage Against The Machine at Big Day Out ’08). In our youth we had the same video game upbringing, and bonded a lot that way, so he gets me when I say comments like “You look like Sub-Zero now”. (see picture above). He was sitting at the dining room table, with the pack on his head, with Mum, Cody, Jamiee, her 3 cousins, Tom and Me around the table. So when Jason arrived, Jake was referred to as the ‘freak show’, because of the big crowd. Back to the main story: Tom arrived and Jason shortly after at 8pm, to watch the freak show, and then we took off to Matt’s house in Highton. Tom wasn’t aware that his new house was in Highton and was kind of shocked about how far he had to drive (in the Corolla!) when I told him. Found the house all well and good and met up with the great Matteous, who had not changed one bit! There were plenty of family and friends around and we mucked around and chatted. Went for a trip to the supermarket later that night, which was half decompiled, and returned with some cokes. Then I got stuck into the Johnny Walkers, which went down very well. They seemed to have an increased inebriation effect, and I only just remembered it was probably because I had had a panadol/berocca pick-me-up a few hours before. Then many many crazy things began to happen. I will list them:

• Catching up with Andrew, and all of his past antics – which were to say the least ‘disgraceful’ but entertaining
• In a fit of excitement I stomped on a UDL can that I though was empty, but wasn’t, so I tried the one next to it that looked empty, but that also wasn’t – except this time it burst and exploded quite impressively.
• Putting the wad-o-tissues (the name by which Tom refers to my tissues when I’m snotty – because I always carry a great big wad) on the spit roast coals, which were still hot and covering it in tinfoil. Then it burst into flames and when Toni’s sister came to blow on it to put it out, made it burn more and higher!! (which you’d guess might happen)
• Someone commented that Matt had bad BO, so I sprayed him with the Citrus Fresh toilet spray – in which he retaliated to by chasing me around the backyard with mayonnaise.
• Matt pushed Andrew really hard and we hit heads quite violently. Caught me off guard. Put a cut in my head – I feel somewhat close to Jake.
• Ambushing people with lines from “Kindergarten Cop” through the toilet window, when they were trying to do their business.
• Throwing stubby holders at people’s heads
• Popping popcorn (all over the floor)
• Andrew breaking a chair and Toni going off her nut at him
• Naturally picking on “guy with the green jumper” although I had never met him before (his UDL’s it turned out, rolled out from the packet). He later spent a lot of times in his undies (after doing a nudie run)
• Tormenting Andrew by filming him with my mobile with the mobile light on
• Wearing a cardboard sleeve for a tin foil baking tray “Mr BBQ” as a wrestling championship belt

On the way home we drove through McDonalds, had a cheeseburger. Then Tom got $5 worth of fuel at the BP next to McDonalds. When me and Jason got home we watched ‘the Mint’ for a while and then decided it was bullshit and went to sleep. He loves Lucy.. not Milsy though. The following are the aforementioned videos: Andrew having a good time Andrew having a bad time Sunday 24th February Woke up at 9.15am when Sarah sent me a message. I was kind of half awake anyway, but there was no way I was going back to sleep after that. I did try for a little while, but no dice. Just chilled with Jason for a while watching some X-Games (apparently Wakeboarding and Jet Skiing are extreme sports) and some V8s. Got stuck into finishing the latest Cru McNugget song “Traffic Lights”. Finished it after many hours of laughing, and we are proud of the beast. Jason left to go home and relax in the mid-afternoon – exhausted from such a strenuous recording session. I also thought that was a good idea, and at 4.00pm I decided to go back to sleep. It worked very well this time. I woke up at 6.40pm. Sarah was having a pumpkin soup dinner with all the Melbourne friends, so she was a bit upset that I didn’t come (I should have left at 6.00pm to get there on time – bit over an hour drive). I Miss Sarah That combined with thoughts of leaving early in the morning, traffic, lack of petrol and then enduring a Monday… I was too late already. I should just do what’s right and get fully better – I’m still missing my baybee heaps now though. I hoping it’s for the best in the long run.. still, it’s been far too long. Resolution I have made a resolution to eat well and exercise from tomorrow and through the month of March in an attempt to look a bit better. Hopefully it will follow on after that. Mainly for Sarah’s 21st (just as a goal), so I can be happy with the photos in the 21st album for eternity. I think it is probably better to be healthy as well… I was going well when I tried last time, running most nights and eating well – then I got sick and I could not do any of it. Then felt good for a while, but was lazy, and then got sick again (office curse!!) Exercising did make me feel good though, so I am not thinking of it as a drag. It will be good. Starting Weight : 90.5 kg Hopefully we’ll see this number go down. Reece Out Originally published on Vox [ronovan.vox.com] 24th February 2008